Branching Out: An Ethnobotanical Garden in Community
Fall 2014, Winter 2015 and Spring 2015 quarters
Taught by
Working as a project team, this program has a mission. Students will continue to tend and refine habitat and theme areas in the Longhouse Ethnobotanical Garden, including the sayuyay Sister Garden (patterned after a medicinal garden we created on the Skokomish Indian Reservation) as well as create valuable educational resources that contribute to the Evergreen community, local K-12 schools, local First Nations, and a growing global collective of ethnobotanical gardens that promote environmental and cultural diversity and sustainability.
During fall quarter , we will become acquainted with the garden and its plants, habitats, history, and existing educational materials. We will begin to engage in seasonal garden care and development, learning concepts and skills related to botany, ecology, Indigenous studies, and sustainable medicine. We will also establish goals related to further developing educational materials and activities, including a Web presence. Students will have the opportunity to select and begin specific independent and group projects that include learning knowledge and skills pertinent to their completion.
During winter quarter , we will focus on the garden's "story" through continued project work at a more independent level. Students will work intensively on skill development, research, and project planning and implementation. We will also be active during the winter transplant season and will prepare procurement and planting plans for the spring season.
During spring quarter , we will add plants to and care for the garden, wrapping up all of the work we have begun. We will establish opportunities to share the garden and our newly created educational materials, effectively enabling the garden to "branch out." This program requires commitment to a meaningful real-world project and strongly encourages yearlong participation. It also cultivates community within the program by nurturing each member's contributions and growth, and acknowledges the broader contexts of sustainability and global transformation.
Fields of Study
Location and Schedule
Campus location
Olympia
Schedule
Offered during: Weekend
Advertised schedule: 9:30a-5:30p Sat and 9:30a-1:30p Sun on alternating "Gathering Weekends" and "Independent Weekends." On “Gathering Weekends” we all meet together. On “Independent Weekends” we work independently or in teams.